Hera
In Ancient Greek religion, Hera was the goddess of women, family, motherhood, marriage, fertility, birth, air, sky, familial love and the starry heavens. She was the Queen of Olympus. Her Roman counterpart was Juno, and she was sometimes identified with the Egyptian Isis. She was the youngest daughter of Kronos and Rhea, and the sister and consort of Zeus. She was known as possessing a jealous and vengeful nature, mostly against the victims of her husband's erotic escapades, but also against mortals who crossed her, such as Pelias. Paris offended her by choosing Aphrodite as the most beautiful goddess, earning Hera's hatred. Her symbols were the lotus and the cow, due to its maternal nature. Not wanting to be seen as plain and dull like the cow, Hera chose the peacock to resemble her vain nature and the lion for her shrewdness. Name Etymology The etymology of the name "Hera" is unclear. Walter Burkert, a noted scholar of Greek myth, suggests a connection with ὥρα, hora "season", and to interpret it as ripe for marriage. Walter Burkert, Greek Religion, (Harvard University Press) 1985, p. 131 According to John Chadwick, a decipherer of Linear B, it may be connected with ἥρως, hērōs "hero", but "that is no help, since it too is etymologically obscure." Chadwick, The Mycenaean World (Cambridge University Press) 1976:87. According to Plutarch, Hera was an allegorical name and an anagram of aēr (ἀήρ - air). On Isis and Osiris, 32. Plato suggests ἐρατή ērate "beloved", as Zeus is said to have married her for love. E-ra appears in Mycenaean Linear B tablets. Ephithets Cult Hera was especially worshiped at the sanctuary that stood between the former Mycenaean city-states of Argos and Mycenae, where festivals in her honor called Heraia were celebrated. Though Greek altars of classical times were always placed under the open sky, Hera may have been the first deity to whom an enclosed, roofed temple sanctuary was dedicated. The cosmopolitan nature of the early cult of Hera is also evidenced in her iconographic representations. In Hellenistic imagery, Hera's wagon was pulled by peacocks, birds not known to Greeks before the conquests of Alexander: Alexander's tutor, Aristotle, refers to it as "the Persian bird." Likewise, the Athenians, during the month of Gamelion ("month of marriage") took part in an annual festival commemorating the "Sacred Marriage of Zeus and Hera," and during Metageitnion, celebrated Hera alone, in her role as the "Goddess of Charm." Worship Hera had sanctuaries, and was worshiped in many parts of Greece, often in common with Zeus. Her worship there may be traced to the very earliest times: thus we find Hera, surnamed Pelasgis, worshipped at Iolcos. But the principal place of her worship was Argos, hence called the dôma Hêras. Pind. Nem. x. imt. comp. Aeschyl. Suppl. 297 According to tradition, Hera had disputed the possession of Argos with Poseidon, but the river-gods of the country adjudicated it to her. Paus. ii. 15. § 5 Her most celebrated sanctuary was situated between Argos and Mycenae, at the foot of Mount Euboea. The vestibule of the temple contained ancient statues of the Charites, the bed of Hera, and a shield which Menelaus had taken at Troy from Euphorbus. The sitting colossal statue of Hera in this temple, made of gold and ivory, was the work of Polycletus. She wore a crown on her head, adorned with the Charites and Horae; in the one hand she held a pomegranate, and in the other a sceptre headed with a cuckoo. Paus. ii. 17, 22; Strab. p. 373; Stat. Theb. i. 383. Respecting the great quinquennial festival celebrated to her at Argos, see Dict. of Ant. s. v. Hêraia. Her worship was very ancient also at Corinth Paus. ii. 24, 1, &c.; Apollod. i. 9. § 28, Sparta iii. 13. § 6, 15. § 7, in Samos Herod. iii. 60; Paus. vii. 4. § 4; Strab. p. 637, at Sicyon Paus. ii. 11. § 2, Olympia v. 15. § 7, &c., Epidaurus Thuc. v. 75; Paus. ii. 29. § 1, Heraea in Arcadia Paus. viii. 26. § 2, and many other places. Respecting the real significance of Hera, the ancients themselves offer several interpretations: some regarded her as the personification of the atmosphere Serv. ad Aen. i. 51, others as the queen of heaven or the goddess of the stars Eurip. Helen. 1097, or as the goddess of the moon Plut. Quaest. Rom. 74, and she is even confounded with Ceres, Diana, and Proserpina. Serv. ad Virg. Georg. i. 5. According to modern views, Hera is the great goddess of nature, who was worshipped everywhere from the earliest times. The Romans identified their goddess Juno with the Greek Hera. Hymns to Hera Homeric Hymn to Hera Orphic Hymn to Hera Hera in myth Hera presides over the right ordering of marriage and is the archetype of the union in the marriage bed, but she is not notable as a mother. The legitimate offspring of her union with Zeus are Ares (the god of war), Hebe (the goddess of youth), Eris (the goddess of discord) and Eileithyia (goddess of childbirth). Enyo, a war goddess responsible with the destruction of cities and attendant of Ares, is also mentioned as a daughter of Zeus and Hera, though Homer equates her with Eris. The Saga of the Gods Pre-birth =The Castration of Ouranos = According to Hesiod, Ouranos (Sky) came every night to cover and mate with Gaia (Earth) but he hated the children she bore him. Hesiod named their first six sons and six daughters the Titans, the three one-hundred-armed giants the Hekatonkheires, and the one-eyed giants the Cyclopes. Ouranos imprisoned Gaia's eldest children, the Cyclopes and the Hekatonkheires in Tartarus, deep within Earth, where they caused pain to Gaia. She shaped a great flint-bladed sickle and asked her sons to castrate Ouranos. Only the youngest Titan, Kronos, was wily enough to do it, on being offered the promise of the mightiest weapon of all, the thunderbolt after the completion of the deed. In the dark of the night, he ambushed Ouranos as he lay with Gaia, castrated him, and threw his testicles into the sea. The Birth of Hera After this fearful deed, Kronos re-imprisoned the Cyclopes and Hekatonkheires in Tartarus. Angry with the way she had been deceived, Gaia cursed Kronos that he would be deposed by his child in the same way as he had deposed his own father. Seething with fury, Gaia hid away the thunderbolt in the depths of her womb, where Kronos could not reach. Now Kronos took for himself his sister Rhea as wife, and in fear of the curse swallowed the children he sired − Hestia, Demeter, Hera, Hades and Poseidon. Rescue When Zeus was about to be born, Rhea sought Gaia to devise a plan to save him, so that Kronos would get his retribution for his acts against Ouranos and his own children. Rhea covertly gave birth to Zeus in Crete, handing Kronos a rock wrapped in swaddling clothes, which he promptly swallowed. With Kronos tricked, Rhea hid Zeus in a cave on Mount Ida in Crete, where he was raised by Amalthea and the shield clashing Kouretes. After reaching manhood, he learnt of his father through Gaia, who told him to seek the Titaness Metis' advice to save his brethren. Metis prepared an emetic, and gave it to Zeus to be mixed into Kronos' drink. With Gaia's help, he attained the position of cupbearer in Kronos' palace, and mixed the emetic into his wine. Kronos choked, and disgorged first the stone (which was set down at Pytho under the glens of Parnassus to be a sign to mortal men, the Omphalos), then Zeus' siblings in reverse order of swallowing. Titanomachy Hera was not involved in the ensuing battle Book 14 of the Iliad, starting at Line 197, quoted above, the Titanomachy. During the battle, she delved into the realm of the kind Oceanus and Tethys, who remained neutral, and was raised by them throughout the years of the war. Hera & Zeus The Seduction of Hera Hera grew up to be the most beautiful of the goddesses & Zeus decided to make her his bride. Initially, Hera was shy and very resistant of Zeus, but Zeus turned into a cuckoo, flew over to her window, and pretended to be in distress. Hera cuddled the bird near her breast, and immediately found Zeus leaning against her. Embarrased and ashamed, she agreed to marry him. The Marriage of Zeus and Hera Zeus and Hera were married together with great pomp and show. On the occasion, Gaia presented the couple with a beatiful gift - a tree with golden branches that bore golden apples. This was placed in the Garden of the Hesperides with the Drakon Ladon to guard it. Hera & Hephaestus Hera was jealous of Zeus' giving birth to Athena without recourse to her (actually with Metis), so she gave birth to Hephaestus without him. Hera was then disgusted with Hephaestus' ugliness and threw him from Mount Olympus. In an alternate version, Hera alone produced Hebe after being impregnated by a head of lettuce or by beating her hand on the Earth, a solemnizing action for the Greeks. Hephaestus gained revenge against Hera for rejecting him by making her a magical throne which, when she sat on, did not allow her to leave. The other gods begged Hephaestus to return to Olympus to let her go, but he repeatedly refused. Dionysus got him drunk and took him back to Olympus on the back of a mule. Hephaestus released Hera after being given Aphrodite as his wife. The Gigantomachy Angry at the way Zeus had treated the Titans by throwing them into Tartarus, Gaia mated with Tartarus, the spirit of the abyss, to create the Heca-gigantes, a tribe of hundred giants. At the instigation of Gaia, the Giants declared war on the gods, and the king of the Giants, Porphyrion, kidnapped Hera in the process. Porphyrion raped Hera, and in fury was killed by Zeus and Heracles. This act helped to earn Hera's respect for Heracles. The Patron of Argos Once, Poseidon and Hera vied with each other for the patronship of Argos. When the king Inachus sided in favour of Hera, Poseidon cursed them that would produce no water. Stories of love The lust of Ixion Ixion tried to seduce Hera, who reported his actions to Zeus. The god formed a simalcrum of the goddess out of clouds and sent it to the man. When he slept with this false Hera, Zeus sentenced him to spin for all eternity on a fiery wheel. Stories of her wrath Hera, the enemy of Heracles Hera was the step-mother of Heracles, and is renowned as his enemy; in her honor; Heracles is the hero who, more than even Perseus, Cadmus or Theseus, introduced the Olympian ways in Greece.Ruck and Staples When Heracles was about to be born, Hera tried to prevent it by tying the goddess of childbirth, Eileithyia's legs into knots. She was foiled by Galanthis, her servant, who told Hera that she had already delivered the baby. Hera punished Galanthis by turning her into an animal. While Heracles was still an infant, Hera sent two serpents to kill him as he lay in his cot. Heracles throttled a single snake in each hand and was found by his nurse playing with their limp bodies as if they were a child's toys. The anecdote is built upon a representation of the hero gripping a serpent in each hand, precisely as the familiar Minoan snake-handling goddesses had once done. "The picture of a divine child between two serpents may have been long familiar to the Thebans, who worshiped the Cabeiri, although not represented as a first exploit of a hero". Later she stirred up the Amazons against him when he was on one of his quests. One accountHyginus, De Astronomia, 2.43; pseudo-Eratostenes, Catasterismi, 44; Achilles Tatius (attributed), Introduction to Aratus. of the origin of the Milky Way is that Zeus had tricked Hera into nursing the infant Heracles: discovering who he was, she pulled him from her breast, and a spurt of her milk formed the smear across the sky that can be seen to this day. Unlike any Greeks, the Etruscans instead pictured a full-grown bearded Heracles at Hera's breast: this may refer to his adoption by her when he became an Immortal. He had previously wounded her severely in the breast. Hera assigned Heracles to labor for King Eurystheus at Mycenae. She attempted to make almost each of Heracles' twelve labors more difficult. When he fought the Lernaean Hydra, she sent a crab to bite at his feet in the hopes of distracting him. When Heracles took the cattle of Geryon, he shot Hera in the right breast with a triple-barbed arrow: the wound was incurable and left her in constant pain, as Dione tells Aphrodite in the Iliad, Book V. Afterwards, Hera sent a gadfly to bite the cattle, irritate them and scatter them. Hera then sent a flood which raised the water level of a river so much that Heracles could not ford the river with the cattle. He piled stones into the river to make the water shallower. When he finally reached the court of Eurystheus, the cattle were sacrificed to Hera. Eurystheus also wanted to sacrifice the Cretan Bull to Hera. She refused the sacrifice because it reflected glory on Heracles. The bull was released and wandered to Marathon, becoming known as the Marathonian Bull. Some myths state that in the end, Heracles befriended Hera by saving her from Porphyrion, a giant who tried to rape her during the Gigantomachy, and that she even gave her daughter Hebe as his bride. Whatever myth-making served to account for an archaic representation of Heracles as "Hera's man" it was thought suitable for the builders of the Heraion at Paestum to depict the exploits of Heracles in bas-reliefs. Echo According to the urbane retelling of myth in Ovid's Metamorphoses, for a long time, a nymph named Echo had the job of distracting Hera from Zeus' affairs by leading her away and flattering her. When Hera discovered the deception, she cursed Echo to only repeat the words of others (hence our modern word "echo"). Leto When Hera discovered that Leto was pregnant and that Zeus was the father, she banned Leto from giving birth on terra-firma, or the mainland, or any island at sea. Poseidon gave pity to Leto and guided her to the floating island of Delos, which was neither mainland nor a real island and Leto was able to give birth to her children on the island. As a gesture of gratitude, Delos was secured with four pillars. The island later became sacred to Apollo. Alternatively, Hera kidnapped Eileithyia, the goddess of childbirth, to prevent Leto from going into labor. The other gods bribed Hera with a beautiful necklace nobody could resist and she finally gave in. Either way, Artemis was born first and then assisted with the birth of Apollo. Some versions say Artemis helped her mother give birth to Apollo for nine days. Another variation states that Artemis was born one day before Apollo, on the island of Ortygia and that she helped Leto cross the sea to Delos the next day to give birth to Apollo. Semele When Hera learned that Semele, daughter of Cadmus King of Thebes, was pregnant by Zeus, she disguised herself as Semele's nurse and persuaded the princess to insist that Zeus show himself to her in his true form. When he was compelled to do so, his thunder and lightning blasted her. Zeus took the child and completed its gestation sewn into his own thigh. Another variation is when Hera persuades Semele to force Zeus to show himself in his real form. Unfortunately, he must do what the princess wants, having sworn by Styx. In another version, Dionysus was originally the son of Zeus by either Demeter or Persephone. Hera sent her Titans to rip the baby apart, from which he was called Zagreus ("Torn in Pieces"). Zeus rescued the heart and gave it to Semele to impregnate her; or, the heart was saved, variously, by Athena, Rhea, or Demeter. Zeus used the heart to recreate Dionysus and implant him in the womb of Semele—hence Dionysus became known as "the twice-born". Certain versions imply that Zeus gave Semele the heart to eat to impregnate her. Hera tricked Semele into asking Zeus to show his true form, which killed her. But Dionysus managed to rescue her from the underworld and have her live on Mount Olympus. Io Hera almost caught Zeus with a mistress named Io, a fate avoided by Zeus turning Io into a beautiful white heifer. However, Hera was not completely fooled and demanded that Zeus give her the heifer as a present. Once Io was given to Hera, she placed her in the charge of Argus to keep her separated from Zeus. Zeus then commanded Hermes to kill Argus, which he did by lulling all one hundred eyes to sleep. In Ovid's interpolation, when Hera learned of Argus' death, she took his eyes and placed them in the plumage of the peacock, accounting for the eye pattern in its tail. Hera then sent a gadfly (Greek oistros, compare oestrus) to sting Io as she wandered the earth. Eventually Io settled in Egypt, where according to Ovid she became the Egyptian goddess Isis. Lamia Lamia was a queen of Libya, whom Zeus loved. Hera turned her into a monster and murdered their children. Or, alternatively, she killed Lamia's children and the grief turned her into a monster. Lamia was cursed with the inability to close her eyes so that she would always obsess over the image of her dead children. Zeus gave her the gift to be able to take her eyes out to rest, and then put them back in. Lamia was envious of other mothers and ate their children. Gerana Gerana was a queen of the Pygmies who boasted she was more beautiful than Hera. The wrathful goddess turned her into a crane and proclaimed that her bird descendants should wage eternal war on the Pygmy folk. Tiresias Tiresias was a priest of Zeus, and as a young man he encountered two snakes mating and hit them with a stick. He was then transformed into a woman. As a woman, Tiresias became a priestess of Hera, married and had children, including Manto. After seven years as a woman, Tiresias again found mating snakes, struck them with her staff, and became a man once more. As a result of his experiences, Zeus and Hera asked him to settle the question of which sex, male or female, experienced more pleasure during intercourse. Zeus claimed it was women; Hera claimed it was men. When Tiresias sided with Zeus, Hera struck him blind. Since Zeus could not undo what she had done, he gave him the gift of prophecy. An alternative and less commonly told story has it that Tiresias was blinded by Athena after he stumbled onto her bathing naked. His mother, Chariclo, begged her to undo her curse, but Athena could not; she gave him prophecy instead. Chelone At the marriage of Zeus and Hera, a nymph named Chelone was disrespectful or refused to attend. Zeus condemned her by turning her into a turtle. The Iliad According to the Iliad, during the Trojan War, Diomedes fought Hector and saw Ares fighting on the Trojans' side. Diomedes called for his soldiers to fall back slowly. Hera, Ares' mother, saw Ares' interference and asked Zeus, Ares' father, for permission to drive Ares away from the battlefield. Hera encouraged Diomedes to attack Ares and he threw his spear at the god. Athena drove the spear into Ares' body, and he bellowed in pain and fled to Mt. Olympus, forcing the Trojans to fall back. Hera & the island of Aegina After the goddess learnt that Aeacus King of Aegina was an illegitimate son of Zeus, she poisoned the island's waters, killing the country's entire population. King Haemus and Queen Rhodope In Thrace, Hera and Zeus turned King Haemus and Queen Rhodope into mountains, the Balkan (Haemus Mons) and Rhodope mountain chains respectively, for their hubris in comparing themselves to the gods. The Judgement of Paris All the gods and goddesses as well as various mortals were invited to the marriage of Peleus and Thetis (the eventual parents of Achilles). Only Eris, goddess of discord, was not invited. She was annoyed at this, so she arrived with a golden apple inscribed with the word καλλίστῃ (kallistēi, "for the fairest one"), which she threw among the goddesses. Aphrodite, Hera, and Athena all claimed to be the fairest, and thus the rightful owner of the apple. The goddesses chose to place the matter before Zeus, who, not wanting to favor one of the goddesses, put the choice into the hands of Paris, a Trojan prince. After bathing in the spring of Mount Ida (where Troy was situated), the goddesses appeared before Paris. The goddesses undressed and presented themselves to Paris naked, either at his request or for the sake of winning. Still, Paris could not decide, as all three were ideally beautiful, so they resorted to bribes. Hera offered Paris control over all Asia and Europe, while Athena offered wisdom, fame, and glory in battle, and Aphrodite offered the most beautiful mortal woman in the world as a wife, and he accordingly chose her. This woman was Helen, who was, unfortunately for Paris, already married to King Menelaus of Sparta. The other two goddesses were enraged by this and through Helen's abduction by Paris they brought about the Trojan War. Stories of her favour and blessings Cydippe Cydippe, a priestess of Hera, was on her way to a festival in the goddess' honor. The oxen which were to pull her cart were overdue and her sons, Biton and Cleobis, pulled the cart the entire way (45 stadia, 8 kilometers). Cydippe was impressed with their devotion to her and her goddess and asked Hera to give her children the best gift a god could give a person. Hera ordained that the brothers would die in their sleep. This honor bestowed upon the children was later used by Solon, as a proof while trying to convince Croesus that it is impossible to judge a person's happiness until they have died a fruitful death after a joyous life. The Golden Fleece Hera hated Pelias because he had killed Sidero, his step-grandmother, in one of the goddess's temples. She later convinced Jason and Medea to kill Pelias. Golden Fleece was the item that Jason needed to get his mother freed. Consorts and children Divine offspring In modern culture Books *Hera is featured in the Percy Jackson and the Olympians and Heroes of Olympus book series, more notably in in the first book of the latter series, as a goddess with a certain hatred to all demigods, especially Jason and Thalia Grace. She is shown as kidnapped in The Lost Hero by Porphyrion after taking Jason's memories. Comics *Hera has often appeared in the Wonder Woman comic book, sometimes as a patroness of the heroine, sometimes as her enemy. Television *Hera was a near-constant foe for Hercules in several made for TV movies and later the TV series Hercules: The Legendary Journeys. This version of Hera usually manifested as disembodied eyes throughout most of the made-for-TV films, but she eventually appeared in a human-like form near the end of the series' run. Video Games *Hera was featured in the video game God of War 3, she was seen as an evil, ungrateful drunk, and was eventually killed by the series protagonist Kratos, by him snapping her neck/spine. Portrayal Art Hera is often portrayed as majestic and solemn, often bearing a pomegranate in her hand, emblem of fertile blood and death and a substitute for the narcotic capsule of the opium poppy. She also may hold a peacock feather in her hand, and carry a lotus-tipped staff. She is usually crowned with a diadem. Personality In myths, Hera is generally portrayed as vengeful, jealous and quarrelsome. Frequent disputes arose between her and Zeus; and on one occasion Hera, in conjunction with Poseidon and Athena, contemplated putting Zeus into chains. In such cases, Zeus not only threatened but often beat her and once even hung her up in the clouds, her hands chained, and with two anvils suspended from her feet. viii. 400, &c., 477, xv. 17, &c.; Eustath. ad Hom. p. 1003 When she was unable to gain her ends in any other way, she took recourse to cunning and intrigues. Attributes Chariot Hera's chariot was drawn by peacocks, birds not known to Greeks before the conquests of Alexander. Alexander's tutor, Aristotle, refers to it as "the Persian bird." The peacock motif was revived in the Renaissance iconography that unified Hera and Juno, and which European painters focused on. Seznec, Jean, The Survival of the Pagan Gods : Mythological Tradition in Renaissance Humanism and Art, 1953 Symbols Trivia *Hera's name is an anagram of her mother's name, Rhea. *In hopes of appeasing her, Zeus named his and Alcmene's son Heracles, which literally means "the glory of Hera".Pauly-Wissowa, Realencyclopädie der Classischen Altertumswissenschaft, s.v. Hera: "Heraberühmte" References